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We were the international Jewish Coalition Against Sexual Abuse/Assault (JCASA); and were dedicated to ending sexual violence in Jewish communities globally. We did our best to operate as the make a wish foundation for Jewish survivors of sex crimes. In the past we offered a clearinghouse of information, resources, support and advocacy.

Wednesday, April 20, 2005

Accused of sexually assaulting a female subordinate in 1996, while employed within the Israeli embassy in Holland.

According to the complainant, she went to a casino one night with several other embassy employees, including Yitzhaki, and at some point, she went out to their car to fetch something. Yitzhaki then fell upon her, tore her clothes and tried to rape her, but she managed to push him off and escape.

Israeli diplomat under investigation for issuing more than 150 passports in exchange for large sums of money and perks

By Efrat Weiss and Doron Sheffer

YNET - April 20, 2005

TEL AVIV - The Petah Tivka Magistrates Court extended the remand Wednesday of Israel’s consul in Holland for five days, after he was arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust.

Earlier, the international crime squad arrested 51 year-old Uriel Yitzhaki at Ben Gurion International Airport upon his arrival to Israel for a visit.

Yitzhaki is suspected of abusing his authority as consul and supplying Israeli passports to those not eligible for them, in exchange for large sums of money and perks.

A gag order had been placed on the investigation and details were released for publication on Wednesday.

Yitzhaki was appointed consul to The Hague in August 2002, after serving in several Israel embassies, including New York, Vienna, Nairobi and Singapore.

More than 150 passports issued

The crime squad first began investigating Yitzhaki in July 2004, following a complaint and intelligence information suggesting that he had been issuing Israeli passports in return for money and perks, including stays at luxury hotels and tens of thousands of dollars.

A secret investigation revealed that Yitzhaki issued more than 150 passports against consular regulations.

Head of the international crime squad Amitai Shai told Ynet that the investigation began in July 2004, after the Foreign Ministry received an anonymous tip regarding the consul’s conduct in Holland.

“The investigation was kept a secret until the consul’s arrest yesterday (Tuesday) on suspicion of bribery, fraud and breach of trust,” he said, adding that the Dutch police offered full cooperation throughout the investigation.

“We deliberated about his (Yitzhaki) arrest, we finished the investigation a few days ago and decided to wait until he arrived in Israel,” he said. “Once we realized that he would be arriving...we sent teams to Holland to prepare for his arrest.”

Israeli police have arrested one of the country's diplomats serving in the Netherlands for allegedly issuing passports in exchange for bribes.

The Israeli consul in The Hague, Uriel Yitzhaki, was arrested after flying to Ben Gurion airport outside Tel Aviv.

An investigation was started in July 2004 after reports that passports were being issued to people ineligible to receive them.

Mr Yitzhaki, 56, is expected to appear before magistrates later on Wednesday.

The head of the International Crimes Unit in the Israeli police, Amichai Shai, said undercover officers had been investigating Mr Yitzhaki in The Hague for several months in a joint operation with the Dutch and other police forces.

Israel's consul general to The Hague was arrested yesterday on suspicion of accepting bribes.

Officers from Israel Police's International Crimes Unit were waiting for Uriel Yitzhaki as he arrived at Ben-Gurion International Airport from the Netherlands as he arrived for a visit .

Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court remanded him yesterday in custody for six days.

The arrest was the culmination of an extensive investigation into allegations that Yitzhaki, 56, accepted cash and perks in exchange for issuing Israeli passports to people who were not entitled to them.

Details of the investigation were released for publication yesterday. A police statement said Yitzhaki had been arrested on suspicion of "accepting bribes, fraud and breach of trust."

The investigation, code-named "The Flying Dutchman," began in July 2004 when a woman working with Yitzhaki complained that he had tried to use his senior position to force her to have sexual relations with him, Israel Radio reported.

Police detectives have collected evidence apparently showing that Yitzhaki had issued some 150 Israeli passports to people who were not entitled to them in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars and perks such as stays in luxury hotels. The investigation was also a joint effort by the Foreign Ministry and Justice Ministry.

Police are also checking whether Yitzhaki sold Israeli passports during his previous postings to New York, Vienna, Nairobi and Singapore.

Yitzhaki appeared surprised when he was approached by plainclothes detectives at the airport and informed he was under arrest, said Amichai Shai, head of the International Crimes Unit.

The police's National Serious & International Crimes Unit yesterday continued its interrogation of Uriel Yitzhaki, Israel's consul general in The Hague who is suspected of receiving bribes for issuing illegal passports. The probe is currently focused on ascertaining whether any of the recipients of the passports were criminals.

At present, no specific information supports the allegations against Yitzhaki, but the police know that in Europe, the Foreign Ministry officials was considered a source for buying passports.

The police are also trying to ascertain why Interior Ministry failed to discover the illegal transactions. As reported earlier, Yitzhaki allegedly produced "parallel" passports to ones already issued in Israel such that an identical passport number served two different people. The police will also investigate whether Yitzhaki began these activities when stationed at Israel's embassies in Vienna and Nairobi.

On Wednesday, the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court extended Yitzhaki's remand by six days.

Yitzhaki's attorney, Yaakov Weinroth, said his client denied the allegations and that the affair began with a complaint of a consulate employee who had had an affair with the suspect and sought revenge. Yitzhaki is also suspected of other felonies such as abusing his authority to gain sexual favors, fraud and breach of trust, money laundering and intimidation.

Foreign Ministry worker questioned over illegal passport By Jonathan Lis and Roni SingerHaaretz - April 25, 2005Police on Monday questioned a Foreign Ministry employee for allegedly issuing a passport illegally. Roni Yedidyah, who previously worked in the European department of the ministry's consular unit, is suspected of breach of trust.

Police suspect Yedidyah of issuing the passport at the request of Israel's consul to The Hague, Uriel Yitzhaki, who has been arrested on suspicion of accepting bribes in exchange for issuing Israeli passports unlawfully.

During the remand hearing, police revealed that they also suspected Yitzhaki of additional instances of bribery and sexual harassment.

The police's international investigations unit suspects that Yitzhaki issued Israeli passports in exchange for bribes and other benefits over a long period of time. He is also suspected of fraud, breach of trust, statutory rape, abuse of his position and money laundering.

Yitzhaki denies the allegations against him.

Police are also investigating whether some of the people for whom Yitzhaki allegedly issued the passports are related to criminals. Police do not have accurate information to support their suspicions, but investigators say Yitzhak had a reputation across Europe for issuing passports in exchange for payment.

Yitzhaki was arrested at the airport last week as he arrived in Israel to celebrate the Passover holiday with his family. Yitzhaki refused Monday to answer reporters' questions.

Israeli police officers, who have dubbed the case The Flying Dutchman, have been investigating Yitzhaki for more than six months, in close collaboration with the Dutch police.

European division head questioned in connection to consul bribery scandal; earlier court extends remand of consul for three days

PETACH TIKVA - The head of the Foreign Ministry’s Europe division, Roni Yedidya, was questioned Monday by the police’s international crime squad in connection to the bribery scandal involving Israel’s consul in The Netherlands, Uriel Yitzhaki.

Yedidya, who served as division head in 2003, was questioned on suspicion of assisting Yitzhaki and illegally issuing a passport.

This is the second time police have extended his detention, following his arrest last week at Ben Gurion International Airport upon his arrival to Israel.

Yitzhaki is suspected of abusing his authority as consul and supplying Israeli passports to those not eligible for them, in exchange for large sums of money and perks.

Snowball Effect

Police attorney Yael Reichert said she had originally requested a remand period of ten days, as Yitzhaki has refused to cooperate during questioning.

She said the investigation is scheduled to continue both in Israel and in Holland, despite the Pesach holiday.

“What started as a preliminary investigation with suspicious findings, now resembles a snowball that keeps on rolling and gathering snow,” she said.

Additional evidence has been collected, which indicates other bribery cases, theft and additional sexual harassment complaints by consular workers, she said.

Yitzhaki is also suspected of receiving bribes

from the Interdin transportation company during his tenure as consul.

Right to remain silent

Yitzhaki was questioned in court Monday about his connections to bribery suspicions and his acquaintance with a female embassy worker who filed the initial complaint.

Yitzhaki allegedly had an affair with the woman, which according to him, ended badly.

He refused to answer questions regarding whether he had received benefits and money in return for supplying Israeli passports, saying only that his lawyer advised him to remain silent.

Alternative detention

Yitzhaki’s lawyer Yaakov Weinroth said he had requested the court look into alternative detention options.

However, Reichert said that as there are more than a dozen pending investigations into the matter, both in Israel and Holland, it was feared that Yitzhaki may attempt to disrupt them should he be freed.

"We are talking about a man with many ties and gathered evidence indicates that he may try to disrupt the investigation, and influence his sentencing in Israel and abroad,” one police official said.

However, the court only partially accepted the police’s request and agreed to extend his remand for three days, instead of the requested ten.

Police's International Serious Crime Unit was interrogating Roni Yedidia, former head of the European Department at the Foreign Ministry for allegedly assisting Hague Consul Uriel Yitzhakzi illegally issue Israeli passports.

Police said the suspicions against Yedidia were fraud related and she was questioned by police in Petah Tikva.

Yitzhaki is charged with receiving bribes in return for allegedly selling over 150 passports, in addition to fraud and breach of trust.

By extending his remand, Army Radio reported, the court accepted the police's position that argued against Yitzhaki's release to house arrest, out of the concern he would coerce witnesses.

During the hearing, the police representative said that another suspicion is currently being examined by which Yitzhaki may be involved in another bribing affair involving a moving company. She added that several female employees at the consulate have complained that Yitzhaki had sexually harassed them.

Yitzhaki's attorney, Yaakov Weinrot, estimated that the source of these accusations was a "painful romantic episode that resulted in wicked plot that has no basis."

So far, Yitzhaki has not cooperated with the police and has refused to answer the interrogators' questions, Israel Radio reported.

During the hearing, the name of the person who exposed the affair was revealed: Victoria Stephanski, a consulate employee.

In an undercover operation codenamed "The Flying Dutchman" the police's International Serious Crimes Unit arrested Yitzhaki after he arrived in Israel late Tuesday night for allegedly misusing his consular position to illegally sell over 150 passports.

Yitzhaki is suspected of receiving tens of thousands of dollars in addition to other perks in exchange for issuing passports to criminal elements and people who were not entitled to them.

Police also suspect that Yitzhaki, a veteran and high-ranking foreign ministry official, had an illegal sexual relationship with a female subordinate of his at the Hague embassy.

In addition to the fraud, Yitzhaki is accused of threatening the lives of several individuals involved in the passport affair and of laundering millions of shekels.

The investigation, launched in July, was under a tight gag order, which was lifted Wednesday morning.

Police launched the investigation after receiving intelligence information that Yitzhaki, 56, had used his position as head of consular affairs in the Dutch embassy to issue passports to people ineligible to receive them.

A senior consular official at the Foreign Ministry, Roni Yedidya, was questioned under caution yesterday at the International Crimes Division of the police.

Yedidya, who headed the European division of the consular section at the ministry, is suspected of issuing a passport in contravention of the law and of breach of trust. It is believed she acted at the behest of the Israeli consul in The Hague, Uriel Yitzhaki, who was arrested on Wednesday. Yitzhaki is suspected of issuing dozens of illegal passports in return for bribes, and of exploiting his position of authority to have sex.

At a remand hearing yesterday in Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court, police representatives said that Yitzhaki appeared to have been involved in a series of additional crimes. These included another bribery affair, theft, and charges by women employees of sexual harassment. Yitzhaki denied the charges.

The investigation against Yitzhaki was conducted clandestinely and in cooperation with Dutch police over the past few months. Yitzhaki assumed the position of consul for administrative affairs in the Dutch capital in August 2002, and police believe he succeeded in issuing 150 falsified passports since then. In return, he is thought to have received tens of thousands of shekels, as well as additional benefits such as staying at luxury hotels. A local moving firm is also thought to have been involved.

Police say they have proof in at least two cases where Israelis were given passports to which they were not entitled because they had not lived in Israel for a year. Yitzhaki is also suspected of laundering bribes he received by putting them in accounts in Israel.

The husband of a woman who allegedly had consensual sex with Yitzhaki after he used his authority for this purpose lodged three complaints with Dutch police against the consul for various crimes. However, Yitzhaki appears to have avoided interrogation by invoking diplomatic immunity.

Most vidence against Yitzhaki is still in the hands of Dutch police, and has not yet been sent to Israel. During yesterday's remand hearings, it transpired that Yitzhaki had originally cooperated with police after his arrest but, on the advice of his lawyer, is now refusing to talk. His remand was extended three days._________________________________________________________________________________

The Police's International Serious Crime Unit interrogated Roni Yedidia, the former head of the European Department at the Foreign Ministry, on Monday for allegedly assisting The Hague Consul Uriel Yitzhaki in illegally issuing Israeli passports.

Earlier in the day, the Petah Tikva Magistrate's Court extended Yitzhaki's remand by three days.

Yitzhaki, 56, is charged with receiving bribes in return for allegedly selling over 150 passports, in addition to fraud and breach of trust.

By extending his remand, the court accepted the police's position that releasing Yitzhaki to house arrest would enable him to coerce witnesses, Army Radio reported.

During the hearing, the police representative said another possibility being examined was that Yitzhaki may be involved in an additional bribing affair involving a moving company. She added that several female employees at the consulate have complained that Yitzhaki had sexually harassed them.

Yitzhaki's attorney, Yaakov Weinrot, said these accusations stemmed from a "painful romantic episode that ended in baseless allegations."

So far, Yitzhaki has not cooperated with police and has refused to answer interrogators' questions, Israel Radio reported.

During the hearing, the name of the person who exposed the affair was revealed: Victoria Stephanski, a consulate employee.

In an undercover operation codenamed "The Flying Dutchman," the police's International Serious Crimes Unit arrested Yitzhaki after he arrived in Israel late Tuesday night.

Yitzhaki is suspected of receiving tens of thousands of dollars, in addition to other perks, in exchange for issuing passports to criminals and people who were not entitled to them.

In addition, Yitzhaki is accused of threatening the lives of several individuals involved in the passport affair and of laundering millions of shekels.

The investigation, launched in July, was under a tight gag order, which was lifted last week.

Uriel Yitzhaki released to house arrestPolice: We have solid evidence from the Netherlands against YitzhakiBy Noam SharvitGlobes - April 28, 2005

The Petah Tikva Magistrates Court today released Israel's Consul General to The Hague Uriel Yitzhaki to house arrest for 15 days at his sister's home in Jerusalem.

Judge Lia Lev On forbade Yitzhaki from contacting anyone connected to the case in which he is being investigated. Yitzhaki also had to post NIS 100,000 in bail, and he has been forbidden to leave the country or approaching the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Yitzhaki (56) was released to house arrest with his consent, after being remanded since Passover eve last week, on suspicion of bribery, fraud, breach of trust, theft by a public servant, unlawful consensual sex, threats, a failure to make reports under the Prohibition on Money Laundering Law (5760-2000).

Israel Police National Serious and International Crimes Unit investigators will return to Israel tomorrow, after gathering evidence in the Netherlands and Austria. The police say they have solid evidence from the Netherlands against Yitzhaki.

The main suspicion against Yitzhaki is the issue of 150 duplicate Israeli passports to people who were not entitled to them, in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars and other perks, including stays at luxury hotels.

Police sources blasted the Foreign Ministry yesterday for not taking action against Israel's consul general to The Hague, Uriel Yitzhaki despite his numerous disciplinary offenses over the years. Yitzhaki is facing charges of supplying illegal passports in return for cash and other perks.

The ministry was aware of Yitzhaki's improper conduct, yet enabled him to keep his post, even while he was suspected of committing criminal acts, the sources said.

"The Foreign Ministry was familiar with some of the details in the affair, but failed to take appropriate measures against him and let him get on with his work and continue to carry out the offenses. We hope the ministry has learned the lessons from this affair," a police source said.

The Police's International Crimes Unit is expected to complete Yitzhaki's questioning within 10 days or so and transfer its findings to the State Prosecutor to prepare charges against him. Sources close to the investigation told Haaretz that the probe raises suspicions that "Yitzhaki was involved in numerous criminal activities."

Yitzhaki was arrested on Pesach eve on suspicion that he had issued dozens of Israeli passports in return for bribes. He is also suspected of using his authority to have consensual intercourse with a staff member, fraud, breach of trust, laundering money and threats.

Yitzhaki has denied the allegations.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said yesterday: "The police investigation has cast a pall on the ministry. Obviously it stains the whole system."

"The ministry's director general said at the management meeting last week that we must tighten the supervision and regulations on ministry staff, and show no tolerance of improper conduct," he added.

Foreign Ministry Director-General Ron Prosor cut short a diplomatic trip abroad and was scheduled to return to Israel late Thursday night to deal with a series of scandals rocking the ministry.

Prosor is scheduled to convene a special meeting of the ministry's senior staff on Sunday.

Prosor, who was in Germany Thursday, was scheduled to go to the US for the AIPAC conference next week and for meetings with senior State Department and White House officials, before continuing to London for talks with senior officials there in preparation for Britain's taking over the rotating presidency of the EU in July.

Prosor's return comes a day after the ministry's workers committee sent a letter to Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, Prosor and deputy director-general Nissim Ben- Sheetrit demanding that they deal with a flood of revelations about impropriety in the ministry.

"The house is burning and the Foreign Ministry's directorate is quiet," read the letter.

The problems began last month with the arrest of UrielYitzhaki, consul at the embassy in the Hague, for allegedly trafficking in fake passports; crested when the Shalom- Danny Ayalon scandal broke Saturday night; and was followed up almost every day this week with various revelations of problems at various other embassies and consulates around the world.

A spokesman for Prosor said that his decision to return to Jerusalem was not related to the workers committee letter, but rather because "the Foreign Ministry is presently going through a very difficult period, and he feels it is necessary to be here now to deal with the issues."

Ya'akov Livneh, the workers committee spokesman, said that the committee wanted three key issues addressed.

The first, he said, was to investigate who has been leaking the stories about the ministry that have been grabbing headlines all week long.

Livneh spoke specifically about the leak of an internal report, which he said was only a preliminary one, which criticized ambassador to Hungary David Admon for allegedly focusing more on private business deals than on diplomatic ties, and for an inability to speak well in either Hungarian or English.

This report was leaked on Sunday, the day after the story of ambassador to the US Ayalon's letter to Attorney- General Menahem Mazuz, alleging the involvement of Shalom and his wife Judy Nir Mozes Shalom in the firing of his top aide made huge headlines. The timing led some inside the ministry to believe the Admon report was an intentional leak to embarrass Shalom, since Admon was his political appointee.

The second issue, Livneh said, was the need to strengthen internal controls, so that something like the Yitzhaki case could be discovered in the ministry - and dealt with there - before going to the police.

And, finally, the workers committee wants to see the whole appointments procedure in the ministry revamped so that the top jobs, both ambassadorships and senior positions inside the ministry, are given to those who deserve them based on tenure and experience. This demand comes at a time when many in the ministry are complaining that senior positions are being given to those considered close to Shalom.

The prosecution has prepared a draft indictment against Uriel Yitzhaki, a former Israeli consul in Holland, following the conclusion of the police investigation into his case.

Before the indictment is filed, however, Yitzhaki will presumably be granted a hearing at which he can try to persuade the attorney general to drop the charges.

The draft indictment charges Yitzhaki with taking bribes, fraud, breach of trust and sexual assault. The first three charges relate to suspicions that he accepted a bribe to supply an Israeli passport to Ya'akov Goldovsky, a former Russian businessman living in Europe, and accepted other bribes from Dutch companies in exchange for issuing them fictitious receipts that enabled them to collect money from the Foreign Ministry.

The last count accuses Yitzhaki of sexually assaulting a female subordinate 10 years ago, during an earlier stint in the embassy in Holland. According to the complainant, she went to a casino one night with several other embassy employees, including Yitzhaki, and at some point, she went out to their car to fetch something. Yitzhaki then fell upon her, tore her clothes and tried to rape her, but she managed to push him off and escape.

The woman told the embassy's security officer, who observed the scratches on both her and Yitzhaki when they returned and reported the incident to the ambassador. However, the ambassador apparently never did anything with the report, and Yitzhaki fired the woman a few days later. When she saw the recent media reports of Yitzhaki's arrest and investigation on other charges and told the police about her own experience.

Yitzhaki became Israel's consul in The Hague in August 2002, after previously serving in several other embassies. The police investigation against him began in late 2004, and he was arrested during a visit to Israel in April 2005.

The media reports of Yitzhaki's arrest said that he was suspected of having issued 150 passports to ineligible recipients. These allegations are not mentioned in the indictment, but they are being investigated by the Civil Service Commission, which is expected to file disciplinary charges against him.

Yitzhaki's brother, also once a Foreign Ministry employee, was suspended several years ago due to allegations stemming from his stint in Israel's embassy in Ethiopia that were very similar to those for which Yitzhaki now faces indictment.

_________________________________________________________________________________Diplomat Uriel Yitzhaki chargedBy Dan IzenbergJerusalem Post - April 26, 2006The Jerusalem District Attorney's Office Tuesday indicted Uriel Yitzhaki, the former Israeli consul-general in The Hague, for financial irregularities and performing an indecent act. According to the charge sheet, Yitzhaki offered to issue an Israeli passport to an Austrian in return for 5,000 euros and other benefits. He also allegedly arranged with a shipping company to inflate the charges for transporting containers belonging to Israeli embassy staff to and from the Netherlands and pocket the difference. Yitzhaki allegedly netted 20,000 euros in this manner.

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This study utilized a qualitative analysis of child
survivors of the Holocaust who were sexually abused during World War II.
The research study aimed to give this specific group of survivors a voice
and to explore the impact of multiple extreme traumas, the Holocaust and
childhood sexual abuse, on the survivors. Twenty-two child survivors of the
Holocaust who were sexually abused during the war completed open-ended
interviews. The data was qualitatively analyzed according to Tutty, Rothery,
and Grinnell's (1996) guidelines. Three major themes were found: issues relating
to the sexual abuse trauma, survivors' perceptions of the abuse, and survivors'
general perspectives towards life. The identity of the offenders, Jewish
or non-Jewish, determined the survivors' feelings towards themselves, the
perpetrators, and about the worth of life.

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Survivors ARE Heroes!

The Awareness Center believes ALL survivors of sex crimes should be given yellow ribbons to wear proudly.

Survivors of sexual violence (as adults and/or as a child) are just as deserving of a yellow ribbon as the men and women of our armed forces, who have been held captive as hostages or prisoners of war.

Survivors of sexual violence have been forced to learn how to survive, being held captive not by foreigners, but mostly by their own family members, teachers, camp counselors, coaches babysitters, rabbis, cantors or other trusted authority figures.

For these reasons ALL survivors of sexual violence should be seen as heroes!